This story is set three years into Number One's posting on the Enterprise, which was described in "Shadows of the Past" as having begun five years after her first mission aboard the ship, as depicted in "Shakedown."

Given that "Shakedown" portrayed the shakedown cruise of the Enterprise, and this issue, eight years later, shows April still in command, it must be set near the end of April's captaincy, which concluded in 2251.